Eating meat grown in a lab is an "absurdity" and "unnatural" practice that takes away from "fresh" produce.

That's according to Hugh, a chef, who was speaking to Lunchtime Live about the emerging lab-grown meat market.

The United States has become the second country to go ahead to make lab-grown meat commercially available.

The 'meat' is made by harvesting cells from a living animal or a fertilised egg to establish a cell bank, that can then be kept for decades in a deep freeze.

Two companies have been granted approval to sell chicken grown directly from animal cells in a lab.

While this is a step in the right direction for animal rights activists, those in the food industry, such as Hugh, have expressed their distrust in the products.

"I find the whole thing horrible, to be honest," he told the show.

"I've been around cheffing for a very, very long time and the one thing we've always said is that we want to cook fresh and we want to eat natural foods."

'A pulse'

Hugh said he can "appreciate" that some people find animal slaughtering distressing, but he preferred to know his produce had been alive.

"I want to think that what I'm eating had a pulse at some stage," he said.

"We don't know how this is going to affect us medically or physically in the years to come.

"What's going to happen when we get rid of all our animals, all our chickens – we won't have cows running around passing wind anymore and destroying the atmosphere in the ozone layer, and climate change, they're saying, will be halted or at least slowed.

"Look at other aspects that are causing climate change, there are so many of them out there."

'Yuck factor'

Roger said the developments would potentially help grow the up-and-coming market of vegan-friendly produce.

"It's probably got a lot of potential there," he said.

"There might even be a generational divide really, the younger people might be more in favour of it, the older ones, probably on the grounds of the fact that they don't regard flesh as food in the first place."

Meat analogue (also called alternative, substitute, mock, faux, imitation, vegetarian, vegan) meat. Wheat gluten, also called seitan, mian (Romualdo Crissi / Alamy Stock Photo)

Roger said there may be a "yuck factor" for those who are not used to meat alternatives.

"I think people are going to be a little bit reluctant on that, but then that's the way that things change – there's a bit of resistance and then people just get used to it," he said.

"People are going to end up having a lot of lab-grown or cultivated meat in things like pies and pasties without really knowing it."

Texture

As a chef, Hugh said his dislike of the faux meat would be likely down to texture, rather than taste.

"I think you can make anything taste whatever way you want," he said.

"For instance, you'll get your box of chocolates, and you go to your strawberry chocolate ... That's never seen a strawberry in its entire life – it's a taste made up of chemicals.

"We're years away from seeing this in the supermarkets – at least I hope we are."

You can listen back here: